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Raves and Reviews -
Album Review-Circles Around Me |
After years of experimenting with everything from jazz to rock to blues to funk and a whole lot more, Sam Bush has come home to bluegrass.
And “Circles Around Me” is easily the best album he’s produced in years — at least as far as bluegrass fans are concerned. And it’s also easily one of the best bluegrass albums of the year.
At 57, Bush’s voice seems better than ever.
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| K Lawrence |
Album Review-Circles Around Me |
Sam Bush's “Circles Around Me” is backward-looking. There are traditional songs with old-sounding titles (“Midnight on the Stormy Deep,” “Apple Blossom”); even the new songs have a musty scent, like “The Old North Woods.” There are old friends (John Cowan, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas), and a friend who is old (septuagenarian Del McCoury, who adds vocals to two tunes). There's even some genuinely old music: the fiddle tune “Apple Blossom,” a duet with the late banjoist Courtney Johnson, was recorded in 1976.
Most of all, and best of all, the approach is back-to-basics — an adventurous take on string music, with a pronounced emphasis on acoustic sounds. And, at least on record, Bush has never been better. The picking is hot (check out the burning “Blue Mountain”), and old-fashioned doesn't mean a lack of sophistication (try the elegant “Junior Heywood,” co-written with bassist Meyer, and featuring the Meyer Family Strings: Meyer and violinist Cornelia Heard, his wife and fellow Aspen Music Festival faculty member, plus their son, violinist George, in his recording debut).
As far as I'm concerned, Sam Bush doesn't need to play another reggae song again. To go further, he never needed to play one in the first place. |
| Stewart Oksenhorn |
Circles Around Me |
As newgrass (an arguably Louisvillian invention) turns 40, Sam Bush, the genre’s chief architect, continues to construct superb sounds from his adopted Nashville. Besides the genre’s deep connection here, locals will notice a more personal connection upon opening this package. It seems Bush’s latest release is dedicated to the memory of his friend and ours, the late Tim Krekel. Circles Around Me, like much of the Bush canon, features master musicianship throughout. There are tasty instrumentals, old favorites like “Whisper My Name,” and new favorites, too. One of the new standouts is a mournful tune that Bush co-authored with Guy Clark and Verlon Thompson about the sad demise of Stringbean, the Kentucky-born star of the Grand Ole Opry who was murdered in Tennessee. It is also worth mentioning that, in addition to the usual suspects who comprise the Sam Bush Band, Bush is joined here (posthumously) by New Grass Revival cohort Courtney Johnson, and he also collaborates in the flesh with old pals such as Jerry Douglas and Del McCoury. At 57, Bush is probably not as groundbreaking as he was at 17, but his skills just keep getting sharper. And his music is always a treat to ingest.
http://leoweekly.com/music/reviews/circles-around-me
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| Kevin M. Wilson |
Album Review: Sam Bush Circles Around Me |
 At 57, Sam Bush is only getting better with age. With Circles Around Me, he combines old and new sounds in an irresistible blend that ranks among some of his best solo work to date. Though he’s sharply dressed in a suit on the album cover (a far cry from earlier album covers like Glamour & Grits on which he sports an outfit befitting a colorblind transiAt 57, Sam Bush is only getting better with age. With Circles Around Me, he combines old and new sounds in an irresistible blend that ranks among some of his best solo work to date. Though he’s sharply dressed in a suit on the album cover (a far cry from earlier album covers like Glamour & Grits on which he sports an outfit befitting a colorblind transient–albeit one who owned a prewar Gibson F-5)–several songs recall his scruffy days as a member ofthe boundary-pushing New Grass Revival.ent–albeit one who owned a prewar Gibson F-5)–several songs recall his scruffy days as a member ofthe boundary-pushing New Grass Revival.
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| Juli Thanki |
Album Review |
SAM BUSH, “Circles Around
Me” (Sugar Hill Records) ***1⁄2
Recently anointed with the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement for Instrumentalist award, Kentucky native Sam Bush is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, with “Circles Around Me,” his seventh solo album, the 57-year-old contemporary bluegrass icon gives every indication that his best days are ahead of him. Mixing traditional bluegrass favorites with a handful of rock-solid original compositions, Bush puts his stamp on “Diamond Joe,” “Midnight on the Stormy Deep”and “Apple Blossom” and soars on instrumentals “You Left Me Alone” and the self-penned “Blue Mountain.”Additional keepers include “The Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle,” the set-opening title track and “The Old North Woods.” Fans of Bush’s work with New Grass Revival in the early 1970s will enjoy updated versions of “Souvenir Bottles” and “Whisper My Name.” |
| Jeffrey Sisk |
Album Review-Circles Around Me |
On his latest, Sam Bush dispels the full breadth of his repertoire. Accompanied by his touring band, with Scott Vestal on banjo, Stephan Mougin (guitar), and Byron House (bass), Bush demonstrates his ability to deliver a song so that the tune, not the players, is the star. It may seem paradoxical that someone known as a virtuoso player would be so adept at sublimating his flash in favor of the song, but that skill is what has made Sam Bush so popular for so long. Although Circles Around Me includes many new tunes, Bush isn't one to neglect his bluegrass roots. Del MeCoury adds his unmistakable tenor voice to Bush's lead vocals on two Bill Monroe numbers, "Roll On Buddy" and "Midnight on the Stormy Deep." Bush even went back to his New Grass Revival days for remakes of several songs he first recorded with that seminal group. And he proudly sings "Whisper My Name" in the same key he originally recorded it more than 35 years ago. When you listen to Circles Around Me, it's hard to believe Bush has been making music for as long as he has. Infectious energy pulses from his latest release with as much power as when he was a young buck.
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| SS Vintage Guitar Magazine |
Sam Bush Circles Around Me |
Sam Bush is a veteran of the progressive bluegrass scene, having been a founder member of New Grass Revival in the early 1970s. Since that group split in 1989, Bush has enjoyed stints with Emmylou Harris’s Nash Ramblers, been a session musician for a number of country and bluegrass musicians, and released seven solo albums. He has been a restless explorer of musical genres, applying himself to rock, blues, funk, and jazz along the way. Circles Around Me is his eighth album and appears, like the five before it, on the roots label Sugar Hill. It provides an excellent showcase for his talents as mandolin player, fiddler, singer, and songwriter as well as a reminder of his role in promoting the “newgrass” phenomenon.
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| Richard Elliott |
Sam Bush "Circles Around Me" |
**** (out of 5)
Sam Bush, along with his trademark mandolin style and champion fiddle playing, has inspired jamgrass acts like Yonder Mountain String Band and Leftover Salmon, to more mainstream bluegrass acts like Allison Krauss and the Union Station. His latest release, Circles Around Me, demonstrates the extraordinary musical talents of Sam Bush and his touring band returning full circle to his bluegrass roots.
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| Jason Rooks |
10 Questions: Sam Bush |
Newgrass legend Sam Bush’s latest album, Circles Around Me, hit store shelves last month and he’ll be taking it on the road next year.
In the meantime, he took a few minutes to talk with us about the record, his amazing career and of course, baseball.
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| Nichole Wagner |
Sam Bush fans should be pleased with his latest release |
“Circles Around Me” is the title of the new and, in my opinion, best solo recording from Sam Bush.
The 56-year-old Bush is one of the musicians most responsible for the modern bluegrass or “new grass” movement that began in the late 1960s.
By the time SamBush was 18 he already had won three national fiddle contest titles in a row, released his first recording, “Poor Richards Almanac,” and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry.
Not one to sit still, in 1972 Bush formed the New Grass Revival, an offshoot of the Bluegrass Alliance, which Bush joined in 1970.
New Grass Revival’s first LP, “Arrival of the New Grass Revival,” was a blend of bluegrass and rock ’n’ roll and included extended cuts featuring different band members performing solos.
This music created quite an uproar and seemed to scare off some in the bluegrass community because they did not consider the music traditional.
Now, almost 40 years later, it is mainstream music.
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| Rock Cesario |
Sam Bush Premieres Video Series |
Grammy Award winning multi-instrumentalist Sam Bush (of New Grass Revival) recently launched an internet video series, SBTV (Sam Bush TV). The idea for SBTV came in response to the overwhelming popularity of Bush’s previous series, “Ask Sam Anything”. The show currently boasts three episodes, featuring behind the scenes footage of Bush’s personal life and music, and became public on 20 October, 2009, the same day Bush’s self-produced Circles Around Me was released.
The new album includes collaborations from bluegrass greats Del McCoury, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas and the Sam Bush Band. The real treat on the album is a demo with Courtney Johnson, co-founder of New Grass Revival, who passed away 13 years ago. The recently discovered demo dates back to 1976.
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| Allison Taich |
Sam Bush comes full circle |
Sam Bush has traveled a long road during his four decades in the music business. From his early days as a member of the newgrass to his days as an in-demand session man and solo artist, Bush has been in constant motion, both literally and figuratively.
His legendary band New Grass Revival have inspired and influenced generations of musicians since their 1971 inception. Alongside like-minded artists like John Hartford and JD Crowe and the New South, Bush helped shape a new form of music.
Using bluegrass as a jumping off point, they fused centuries old instrumentation with the progressive sounds of jazz, rock, pop, funk or anything else that caught the player's fancy.
Bush helped push traditional music kicking and screaming into the modern age.
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| Rusty Pate |
"Circles Around Me" by Sam Bush - CD Review |
This review is an extended version of a review submitted to the Lonesome Road Review.
The opening guitar chords in Sam Bush's new CD “Circles Around Me” signal that this is a new turn in an old story. Sam Bush has produced a fine album of fourteen songs that return to an earlier era while forging into new territory. This is a neat trick, but Sam pulls it off with conviction and his customary high musicality. Sam uses his touring band of Scott Vestal, Byron House, Stephen Mougin, and Chris Brown to set and maintain the Bush sound while inviting a number of guests to share the microphone. Songs by Ebo Walker and an appearance by the late Courtney Johnson reach back to his days in New Grass Revival. Four songs exceeding six minutes in length suggest the importance of the jam in a Bush performance or recording. Three traditional songs and a guest appearance by Del McCoury recall the importance of straight ahead bluegrass music in Bush's music; the duo presents two Bill Monroe songs. All told, the CD communicates an elegaic tone in which Bush seems to be seeking to highlight and summarize his long, successful, and creative career.
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| Ted Lehmann |
Album Review |
There are acoustic guitar solos and banjo solos, and smiles on your face. It could be an original song about playing at Telluride or a traditional song about working for a rich man, but it's sung in a straight-forward baritone with some delicious high harmonies for emphasis. Pleasure is the order of the day. And then comes the mandolin solo that sends you flying into ecstasy.
Sam Bush is that mandolin player, the guy who's been on well over a hundred records during the last 35 years or more. Nobody else plays the instrument like Bush, who seems unconcerned that the mandolin traditionally works within a fairly limited series of styles. Bush can play just about anything on that little eight-stringed lute.
While he's best known as a sideman for the likes of Emmylou Harris or Lyle Lovett, or as a member of the legendary New Grass Revival, Bush has turned out eight solo albums now, showing increasing interest in stepping out as a vocalist. Circles Around Me mixes a few traditional bluegrass numbers with some country flavored pop and some gorgeous nearly jazz-like pieces. No matter the quality of the song - and the title track is a mite forgettable, while "Souvenir Bottles" is as powerful a tale of memories happy and sad of an old friend as you'll find - Bush and his hired guns give it their all; there isn't a track on the record that doesn't have something to offer, even if it's merely a good performance.
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| Steve Pick |
Album Review-Circles Around Me |
The fact that Sam Bush dedicated this album to the memory of Tim Krekel speaks volumes for both Bush and Krekel. Krekel, known mainly for his songwriting (outside his small circle of friends, who remember him as the outstanding musician that he was), passed away on June 24th of 2009 and left a gaping hole amidst a group of musicians from the South who pride themselves on taking their music to the people, wherever they may be. It is more than obvious that Bush holds a piece of Krekel in his heart and that when Krekel left, he took a piece of Bush with him.
It is no surprise, then, that Sam Bush placed Krekel's name on an album that encompasses the years that both dedicated to their music—Krekel with artists like Billy Swan, Jimmy Buffett and with bands such as The Sluggers and The Groovebillys, Bush with New Grass Revival and his own band as well as a thousand guest appearances, on record and live, with an astounding number of country and bluegrass artists who placed the call when needing assistance. Indeed, Bush is one of the handful of 'go-to' musicians when projects begin to take shape within the bluegrass and country community.
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| Frank Gutch, Jr. |
The Best Bluegrass of 2009 |
Sam Bush was voted number 2 in PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2009's Bluegrass Category!
See the List |
| Steve Leftridge and Juli Thanki |
“Once In A While A Dream Comes True” - The Virtual Woodshed interview with Sam Bush |
If you asked a jazz drummer to name three mandolin players, he might be able to come up with one… and it’s probably going to be Sam Bush. Known the world over as “The King of Telluride,” Sam is probably the most recognizable picker of the eight-string alive today. He’s been a front man, a side man, a session man, a band leader, a singer and a songwriter, but through it all, his inimitable sound has remained the common denominator.
Sam’s earliest musical experience was that of an award winning young fiddler at contests all over the country in the 60’s. Later in his teens (much to the chagrin of Bill Monroe) Sam would take up the mandolin and kick down all the barriers that had been established by the traditionalists. In creating his unique mandolin approach, Sam combined elements of fiddle and rock guitar with his spirit of innovation, and the result was a technique so controversial that Bill Monroe himself advised a young Sam to “stick with the fiddle.” But Sam was undaunted. In the 70’s his remarkable mandolin became the centerpiece for the groundbreaking group The Bluegrass Alliance, which also featured a young guitarist named Tony Rice (ever heard of him?). After some personnel changes, that band quickly evolved into the now legendary New Grass Revival which would help ignite the careers of such luminaries as Curtis Burch, Courtney Johnson, Bela Fleck, John Cowan and Pat Flynn. For nearly twenty years, Sam and the NGR traveled the world spreading the gospel of Newgrass music with a heavy influence on the mandolin. It’s no exaggeration to say that Sam virtually created a new genre of music with the group. But sadly, all good things must end and the New Grass Revival called it quits in 1989. Not content to sit idle, Sam didn’t waste much time getting back on his feet. He quickly teamed up with fellow instrumental heavyweights Mark O’Connor, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer to form Strength in Numbers, a group that both inspired and humbled all who witnessed it. And while Strength in Numbers seemed to make sense, his next move left some fans scratching their heads. The lifelong front man suddenly accepted a role that took him largely out of the spotlight for five years as a sideman for Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers. In fact it was during an Emmylou gig where Sam would live out a lifelong dream to play beside Bill Monroe onstage at the Ryman Theater in Nashville. After leaving Emmylou in ’95, Sam would go on to take brief gigs as a sideman for Lyle Lovett and Bela Fleck before coming back to his roots as a front man and releasing a string of successful albums for Sugar Hill in the Newgrass genre. Of course, all this is to say nothing of the countless sessions for which Sam lent his creative talents. If you keep a sharp ear, you’ll notice Sam’s distinctive mandolin on albums by Garth Brooks, Wynonna, Doc Watson, Trisha Yearwood, Radney Foster, Bela Fleck and dozens of others.
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| Pete Frostic and Brian Williams |
Sam Bush makes bluegrass dreams come true |
Sam Bush has these dreams.
They’re not the dreams from his youth, like when he would imagine himself playing on stage with the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe. That dream and many others have come true.
Hundreds of mandolin players tread the paths Bush cleared with his New Grass Revival band mates in the 1970s and 80s, and Bush’s new album, Circles Around Me, stands as his most self-actualized and best-received solo work. Still boyish at 57, Bush has forged a place for himself as one of acoustic music’s respected elders. He won a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Americana Music Honors & Awards. And his dreams are different now.
“I seem to dream a lot these days about trying to get to the show,” he said. “And I guess that just means that I still really want to get to the show. The older I get, the more I love to play. This gift of playing music can leave you at any time.”
Bush has twice survived cancer, and the gift of playing has not left him, save for a time in the mid-1990s when he broke his right elbow, and another time in the mid-’90s when he broke his left elbow. Clumsiness has proven more problematic than disease. He has ceased touring through the end of the year while recovering from a non-clumsiness-related foot surgery, but that hasn’t kept him from playing his mandolin. He released Circles Around Me, his third solo album in five years, in October.
“I was inspired by (fiddle great) Vassar Clements when it came to practicing,” Bush said.
“I went to Vassar’s house once, and he was watching football, without the sound on. And with his fiddle, he improvised a soundtrack for the game. If someone was running down the field, he’d play faster and faster. And when they crossed the goal line, he’d bring it down to long, slow notes. I’m not that inventive, but I do love to watch baseball and practice. Unless Vin Scully is announcing, because then I want to hear every word he says.”
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| Peter Cooper |
Album Review-Circles Around Me |
Sam Bush is a country and bluegrass legend. For over four decades, Bush and his mandolin and fiddle have redefined bluegrass by adding rock, jazz, and even a hint of reggae to the rigid confines of the bluegrass genre. On his latest album, Circles Around Me, Bush further entrenches himself as one of the greatest bluegrass singers and songwriters of all-time.
Bush's voice sounds just as polished as it did when he first started, especially on the Bonnie and Clyde storytelling "The Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle" and the hidden track "Hot Tamales and Red Hots."
He also has some classic instrumentals, including the down-home "Blue Mountain," the flighty comforting "Apple Blossom," and the gorgeous "The Old North Woods," which sounds like it could be the background music for a reading of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
Bush even has a few legendary guests, including the incomparable Del McCoury who helps out on "Midnight on the Stormy Deep," and takes the lead on the barn-burner "Roll on Buddy, Roll On." Dobro maestro Jerry Douglas adds his talents to the new grass sound of "Junior Heywood," and the country ballad "Gold Heart Locket."
From the rock-infused bluegrass of New Grass Revival to the all-star band Strength in Numbers and on to Emmylou Harris's Nash Ramblers, Sam Bush has done just about everything that a musician can do in forty years in the music business. Circles Around Me just further solidifies his name among the pantheon of bluegrass legends.
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| Tim Wardyn |
Sam Bush back on his feet, in the saddle |
Even when you're a mandolin player on the level of New Grass Revival co-founder Sam Bush, doctor's orders are doctor's orders.
As a result, foot surgery last November clipped Bush's wings just weeks after the release of his seventh solo studio album, "Circles Around Me," on Oct. 20.
Even though he was in the midst of performing a handful of dates with Dobro and bass masters Jerry Douglas and Edgar Meyer last week, Bush said he couldn't be more excited to about ending his two-month hiatus from fronting his band.
"I feel fortunate I do get to play in different musical situations, but really, the most fun I have is when I get to play with my own band," he said, during a phone interview from Chico, Calif. "Getting to come back and romp and stomp with the Sam Bush Band is what I'm really looking forward to doing."
Tonight, Bush and his band will perform material from "Circles Around Me," when they take the stage at Rhythm & Brews. It will be their second show together after a scheduled performance last night in Frankfurt, Ky.
The straight-ahead bluegrass numbers of "Circles Around Me" were a marked departure for Bush, who has become well-known for taking bluegrass in many experimental, progressive directions throughout his career. The album features guest performances by Meyer and Douglas as well as the unmistakable vocals of the legendary Del McCoury.
Not many artists get to take another crack at making a first impression, but Bush said he's looking forward to spreading the word about the album, even if it's arriving two months late.
"I'm glad to be back in the saddle," he said. "It's as if I get to go out and have part two of promoting this record."
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| Casey Phillips |
Independent Weekly Performance Announcement |
02.26 SAM BUSH @ CAT'S CRADLE
Dubbed the King of Newgrass, progressive-minded mandolinist and fiddler Sam Bush has been breaking barriers for so long that it's hard to imagine his integration of rock and jazz influences offending anyone but the staunchest traditionalists nowadays. The fact that Bush is one of the finest pickers in the land and a gifted vocalist to boot has surely helped assuage a few entrenched ears along the way. No slouch herself, Missy Raines is a nine-time IBMA bassist of the year and has performed alongside such bluegrass pioneers as Jesse McReynolds, Josh Graves and Kenny Baker. Raines takes the opening slot, along with her feisty, jazz-inflected combo, The New Hip. $20-23/ 8 p.m. —Spencer Griffith
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| Spencer Griffith |
Bush bringing bluegrass to Mountain Stage |
Take a look at Sam Bush's tour schedule and you get snapshot of the diversity and depth of the Kentucky native mandolin player who bridged the gap from Bill Monroe to New Grass.
Often tabbed "The King of New Grass," Bush has lectured this winter at Harvard University, roared up California and Canada with his progressive acoustic trio featuring longtime friends, Jerry Douglas and Edgar Meyer, and this spring is looking at a full festival schedule that takes in everything from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to the Four Corners Folk Festival.
A fiftysomething who was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, by the Americana Music Association, Bush shares his love of chunking up bluegrass with jazz, funk, reggae, rock and blues come Sunday as The Sam Bush Band is on the bill at 7 p.m. as Mountain Stage with host Larry Groce tapes a live show at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston.
The co-founder of the genre-bending New Grass Revival and an in-demand musician who has played with everyone from Emmylou Harris and Bela Fleck to Charlie Haden, Bush is happy to share the new music off of his critically acclaimed CD, "Circles Around Me," that was released in October.
Shortly after the release of the CD, Bush had foot surgery, which put him out of commission until recently.
"In a way I feel like we're just now getting to continue to be out promoting the latest record," Bush said by phone from Chico, Calif., where he was playing a show with Meyer and Douglas. "After the surgery I couldn't walk for a couple of weeks and was in a rehab situation for about four months so I am really happy to be out playing music again. Because I love to record and I love to play but I really love getting to play with the band and to get to perform in a live situation. That's the thing I love about Mountain Stage it doesn't feel like you're specifically taping a radio show it feels like you're playing a regular show and one with friends who make it so comfortable."
Bush, who has recorded six studio albums (five for Sugar Hill) as well as "Ice Caps: Live From Telluride -- a live concert DVD," said there is no place like Mountain Stage.
He would know, Bush has been playing Mountain Stage yearly since the early 1980s with New Grass Revival.
"The show is about music and by that I mean in this day and age, when you turn on a certain music awards show and the first hour is just a dance routine," Bush said. " ... and don't get me wrong, I've been involved with playing with ballets and I understand the appeal of dance. I'm just proud that Andy and Larry have been able to continue a music show in this day and age and it is gratifying to me that music has remained the focal point of the show. I think the show has thrived because they do allow you to get on and there is no guidelines. They let you come on and present yourself as you see fit. I am really proud of them for keeping the show going because you know it can't be easy."
Although he loves playing and stretching out with Meyer and Douglas, one of his best friends and Nashville neighbors, Bush said he was anxious to get on the road with his own band of super pickers that includes Scott Vestal (banjo), Stephen Mougin (guitar and vocals), Chris Brown (drums) and bassist Byron House, who first jammed with Bush when House was 11.
"The variety is fun but my favorite thing I get to do is to play with the Sam Bush Band -- they're great pickers and I'm so fortunate to play with people like Bryon House," Bush said. "We're both from Bowling Green (Ky.) and his dad and my mom used to work at Sears and Roebuck together, and although I am seven years older we've been playing since high school."
Armed with such players as House, who was nominated for a Grammy in 2005 and who has played with everyone from the Dixie Chicks to Nickel Creek, Bush said he's stoked to share some of the new songs from his CD that was produced by Bush and that includes appearances by Del McCoury, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas and New Grass Revival co-founder Courtney Johnson (posthumously).
"That is the great thing about the band we can gear our set for different audiences and actually 'Circles Around Me' is in some ways more bluegrass than anything I've recorded under my own name," said Bush, one of the headliners at the first music fest at Churchill Downs in Louisville in July. "There was no definite plan other than these songs and they all seemed to fit together."
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| Dave Lavender |
Sam Bush is eager to set foot onstage after surgery |
It's back-to-work time for Sam Bush.
The veteran bluegrass-and-more stylist and Kentucky Music Hall of Famer has spent the better part of the winter — well, all of it — at a locale he seldom sees during the course of the year: his Nashville home. The Bowling Green native has been recuperating from surgery to remove bone spurs on his right foot.
The convalescence came at a somewhat precarious time. Bush's fine new album Circles Around Me was released only a month before the foot surgery. That meant much of the record's promotion, and his usually hearty schedule of touring and recording studio session work, had to be put on hold.
"But I'm getting ready to hit the ground running," Bush said in a recent phone interview. "Literally."
Bush will be running and then some. His first working itinerary for 2010 looks something like this:
A recording session with country star Dierks Bentley.
A flight the following morning to Cambridge, Mass., to speak and perform at a bluegrass symposium at Harvard University.
A flight back to Nashville before leaving again the next day for California and a series of new grass trio concerts with longtime pals and fellow acoustic music innovators Jerry Douglas and Edgar Meyer.
The kickoff of a midwinter tour with the Sam Bush Band on Thursday at the Grand Theatre in Frankfort.
If the surgery and recuperation time weren't exactly part of Bush's working agenda, neither was Circles Around Me. Well, making a recording was planned, but not the sound or stylistic direction that it took. For an artist who has dabbled in new grass, fusion, funk, folkish country and any number of progressive string-music notions on his recent albums, Circles Around Me took Bush and his mandolin and fiddle playing back to his bluegrass beginnings.
"That's what was so interesting about when we went into the studio," Bush said. "We had no real plans at all to make something that was so close to a bluegrass-type record that used acoustic instruments."
But calling Circles Around Me a traditional bluegrass recording misses the mark. "Comprehensive bluegrass" might be a better tag. The recording revisits music that Bush cut in the early days of the landmark New Grass Revival (Souvenir Bottles), a bluegrass nugget by the Country Gentlemen (You Left Me Alone), an immensely animated instrumental skirmish with Douglas and Meyer (Junior Heywood) and a recording of a spry duet featuring Bush on fiddle and founding New Grass Revival banjoist Courtney Johnson (Apple Blossom) that sat forgotten in a crate of studio tapes for decades. Johnson died of cancer in 1996.
"That one brought me a big old tear of joy," Bush said of the newly rediscovered recording.
The traditional side of Circles Around Me is most luminous when two bluegrass standards popularized by Bill Monroe — Midnight on the Stormy Deep and Roll On Buddy, Roll On — come to life with vocal and guitar aid from bluegrass great (and Monroe alumnus) Del McCoury. It's in these tunes that a strong sense of artistic reflection surfaces. You hear it in the harmonies Bush and McCoury create, and in the soft, unhurried sway of guitar, mandolin and fiddle.
"I don't really know if you will find much that's actually reflective in the lyrics of songs like Midnight on the Stormy Deep or Roll On Buddy, Roll On," Bush said. "But one of the things that may show a bit of reflection is what Del brings to the record.
"It was so funny. We would trade these stories between takes in the studio. Del's a little older than me. But I'm getting old enough now that I know a lot of these same guys that he's talking about. On top of that, Del has so much energy.
"So this session lasted about five hours. By the time it was over, I pretty much had no voice left. But Del just kept going. He would say. 'That's OK. You don't have to sing. Just play.' Man, Del just sang me into the ground that night."
Bush dedicated Circles Around Me to his wife, Lynn, who was executive producer for the album. Fittingly, and with equal lack of planning, the album was released on the couple's 25th wedding anniversary.
But Circles' final dedication is to Tim Krekel, the Louisville songsmith and longtime Bush pal who died of cancer last summer. Bush's last Lexington performance (save for a WoodSongs appearance last fall) was at the 2008 Christ the King Oktoberfest. Krekel also was on the bill, and the friends took turns as guests in each other's shows.
"I met Tim back when I was playing in (the '70s-era Louisville band ) Bluegrass Alliance," Bush said. "He was really into The Band at the time. This was before I even knew their music (coincidentally, a cover of The Band's Up on Cripple Creek was a highlight of the Oktoberfest set). I remember going over to his house one afternoon, and he said, 'Today, you're going to listen to The Band.' And we remained friends all those years after that.
"He was such a great songwriter but stayed pretty quiet about it. People accuse me of being bad at self- promotion. Well, Tim really didn't do much of that at all. He was a friend that I still miss very much."
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| Walter Tunis |
Times Union Picks of the Week |
No one plays mandolin quite like Sam Bush. Not only is the Grammy Award-winner a mandolin master, he's the co-founder of the New Grass Revival, the seminal bluegrass act that broke from the mainstream and launched the newgrass movement, paving the way for next-generation artists such as Bela Fleck and Mark O'Connor. Bush has influenced a long list of mandolin players, including Chris Thile, Wayne Benson, Ronnie McCoury and Mike Marshall. Bush, who puts on an energetic live show, is showing no signs of slowing down. He and his band are on the road again, playing songs from his latest album, "Circles Around Me," which features Del McCoury, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas and tracks by New Grass Revival co-founder Courtney Johnson, who died in 1996. 8 p.m. Friday. $29.50. The Egg, Empire State Plaza, Albany. 473-1845; http://www.theegg.org
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Sam Bush's Newgrass Hits New York |
"Newgrass," as its name suggests, is new-age bluegrass genre characterized by electric instruments (along with the traditional banjo, fiddle etc.), jam sessions, and crazy hippie fans: it has become the music of the moment for stoner-cool Coloradoans, who flock to the annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival held each June in Southwest Colorado's most beautiful mountain town. Newgrass daddy Sam Bush played NYC last night, and I loved his jolly innocence and amazing fiddling, which I'd imagine would seem all the more impressive beneath Telluride's glorious vistas. Agree? Buy a ticket and head out west for the June show!
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| Eimear Lynch |
He pushed bluegrass to become newgrass |
Sam Bush is bringing it all back home. Thirty-seven years after he helped forge a new musical genre with the trailblazing first album of signature band New Grass Revival, Bush is showing his roots.
A noted vocalist and mandolin player extraordinaire, Bush has made his name pushing the traditional boundaries of acoustic string music, in the process shaking up the stodgy bluegrass establishment with a new style -- based on traditional mountain music, but informed by a fresh sensibility -- that came to be named after his band.
"Lo and behold, all these years later, the word ‘newgrass' has gotten to be like a generic term," Bush reflects in a lively telephone interview from his home office in Nashville. "But I always say, if you wanna play newgrass, you have to know how to play bluegrass first."
The Sam Bush Band's new album, "Circles Around Me," constitutes a plainer acknowledgment of Bush's musical roots than he's recorded in years. The band -- including Byron House (bass), Chris Brown (drums), Stephen Mougin (guitar), and Scott Vestal (banjo) -- is likely to showcase its new material when it plays the Colonial Theatre on South Street here on Saturday.
Though the folk, rock and jazz worlds had already experienced boundary re-defining explosions by the early 1970s, bluegrass hung on as a tradition-ruled genre and scene with a conservative bent.
New Grass Revival shook things up on the traditional bluegrass circuit not only by incorporating electric instruments and songs by The Beatles and Bob Marley, but simply by eschewing the neat appearance and matching collared shirts still associated at the time with bluegrass.
Bush cites the improvisations of the Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead and Cream as early influences, plus the work of John Coltrane -- heard via a collection of recordings released by Atlantic Records artists.
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| Jeremy D. Goodwin |
The Sam Bush Band @ The Egg, 3/12/10 |
ALBANY – The mandolin is a small instrument, but in the hands of a master like Sam Bush, it can make some mighty gigantic music.
Like Bela Fleck, his banjo-playing bandmate in his old band New Grass Revival, Bush has taken a musical instrument that was thought to have limited applications in modern music and opened the door to seemingly limitless opportunities. While the mandolin is generally relegated to the realm of bluegrass music, Bush’s imagination seems to know no bounds, and on Friday night during a generous, two-set performance at The Egg, he cut a wide stylistic swath that crossed musical borders into jazz, reggae, progressive rock, blues and beyond.
Backed by a quartet of brilliant players – banjoist Scott Vestal, guitarist Stephen Mougin, drummer Chris Brown and bassist Byron House – Bush laid out the arc of his music perfectly. He opened with Bill Monroe’s classic “Uncle Pen” and followed it up with a signature Monroe instrumental, “Big Mon,” offering the Father of Bluegrass as the foundation of all the wild musical adventures that were to follow. Nearly two and a half hours later, when he returned to his bluegrass roots with brother Charlie Monroe’s “Bringin’ in the Georgia Mail,” the song was transported, morphing through a variety of exotic permutations, including an excursion by House into the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.”
No, this wasn’t your father’s bluegrass. In fact, for much of the evening, it wasn’t really bluegrass at all. When Mougin traded in his acoustic guitar for an electric one on Darrell Scott’s steamrolling “River Take Me,” the band conjured up a Cajun-rock hybrid. Then they wrapped up the first with a head-spinning instrumental medley that veered from David Essex’s “Rock On” to an Irish fiddle tune, before slamming into jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty’s “New Country” at a breakneck tempo.
In the second half of the concert, Bush showcased his propensity for complex, progressive rock-styled songs arrangements, trading in his mandolin for a fiddle on the high-flying “The Mahavishnu Mountain Boys.” He and the band took it even one step further with their show-closer, an original tune that started out in acoustic chamber music mode, shifted gears halfway through as Bush and Mougin picked up electric instruments and exploded into a firestorm of wailing prog-rock. Oh, and did I mention that the song was in a 7/4 time signature?
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| Greg Haymes |
Bowling Green Daily News-Sam Bush is named father of newgrass |
Bowling Green and native son Sam Bush have long been considered by music fans as the progenitors of the newgrass genre.
Now it’s official.
Legislation was passed Tuesday by the Kentucky General Assembly unanimously naming Bowling Green as the birthplace of newgrass, a spinoff of bluegrass music. The legislation also recognizes Bush as the father of newgrass.
“Just a kid going to Warren Central High School, I didn’t know this would ever happen,” Bush said.
Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, sponsored the legislation because “it’s not every day that someone from your hometown creates a genre of music. It’s no big secret that he is considered the father of newgrass and that Bowling Green is where it all started.”
Bush was a member in the seminal newgrass band, New Grass Revival, which was founded in 1971. Bush was the only member of the band to be in all of its incarnations, until it disbanded in 1989.
More recently, Bush is playing his mandolin on a tour that kicked off in Frankfort to promote his latest album, “Circles Around Me.”
“It’s pretty amazing. As a kid who was raised on a farm out on Morgantown Road, it’s humbling,” Bush said. “I take a lot of pride in being from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The fact is not lost on me that the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe ... is from Kentucky.”
Local officials are also happy with the legislation, and are hoping Bowling Green’s new title will help draw tourists to the area.
“Anything positive like that ... we can use as a tourism tool,” said Vicki Fitch, executive director of the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The official distinction could be helpful in promoting the International Newgrass Festival. Bowling Green will host the second annual festival Aug. 20-22. About 1,500 people attended the event last year, and Bush was one of the headliners.
“This event has a huge growth potential as word spreads that it is a quality festival,” Fitch said.
DeCesare, himself a musician in local band Skip Bond and the Fugitives, said there might even be the possibility of a signing ceremony with Gov. Steve Beshear and Bush at the Newgrass Festival.
“I love that time of the year when the festivals start rolling back around (and) I look forward to being there,” Bush said.
— For tickets to the International Newgrass Festival, visit www.newgrassfestival.com. For more information on Sam Bush, visit www.sambush.com.
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| Andrew Thomason |
Bluegrass Unlimited-Album Review |
Much has already been written about mandolinist/fiddler/singer Sam Bush returning to his roots with Circles Around Me. Well, yes, but that’s the way it’s always been with Sam Bush albums. The acknowledged “King of Newgrass” music and founder/leader of New Grass Revival from 1971 through 1989 has more than a halfdozen solo albums under his belt, and the first one opened with “Big Mon,” the instrumental Bill Monroe selfportrait. Every album since has featured—not just dabbled in—bluegrass and prenewgrass music, and not out of any sense of obligation. It is where he comes from, and he absolutely loves it. And, Sam Bush is great at it all.
What is different this time is the conscious (and slightly melancholic and wistful) glance back, though more in theme than musical style. From the opening title track, Bush is contemplating mortality and his own place in the world. And it is a bit jarring, coming from one of music’s seemingly eternally youthful firebrands.
At the same time, it is invigorating by the end, because what he created in his early days, exemplified by two nowclassic New Grass Revival closing cuts, still sounds so fresh. “Souvenir Bottles”—here tightened up, but with its builtin nostalgia intact—sounded slightly quaint in the ’70s as delivered by the new hippies on the block. Now, it comes full circle, with Bush representing the sage as well as the youngster who listens in awe, like a man looking in the mirror in disbelief at the wizened visage glaring back. The hushed transition between Scott Vestal’s banjo solo and Bush’s mandolin exploration is among the disc’s highlights.
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| DR |
Bowling Green Daily News-Native son Sam Bush has made us proud |
It had to be quite an honor for Bowling Green native and musician Sam Bush to be recognized by the state legislature as the father of newgrass.
The legislation passed unanimously Tuesday by the Kentucky General Assembly. It also names Bowling Green as the birthplace of newgrass, a spinoff of bluegrass music.
It is indeed a coup for our city to obtain this recognition.
State. Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, who sponsored the legislation, said that it’s not everyday that someone creates a genre of music and our city is where it all started.
Growing up on a farm out Morgantown Road in Bowling Green and attending Warren Central High School, Bush probably never could have dreamed that he would have had as much success as he has had in his life and now having this honor bestowed upon him.
Bush has had a colorful career in the music industry. He was a member in the seminal newgrass band, New Grass Revival, which was founded in 1971. Bush was the only member of the band to be in each of its incarnations until it disbanded in 1989.
More recently, Bush is playing his mandolin on a tour that kicked off in Frankfort to promote his latest album, “Circles Around Me.”
Bush was modest and humble about his honor, which says a lot about the man. He also showed a lot of pride and joy from being from Kentucky.
This is not only an honor for Bush, it is also an honor for our city. Local officials are hoping Bowling Green’s new title will help draw tourists to the area.
Hopefully, it will do just that.
Sam Bush, as the father of newgrass, is a living legend to many people and he should be very proud of this honor he received.
The community should be proud to have a man with Sam Bush’s talent and reputation be from our city.
Congratulations. |
| Daily News |
The City Wire- Sam Bush brings his legendary ‘New Grass’ to Second Street |
Sam Bush is one of the truly great musicians of the past 40 years. Whether as a member of the New Grass Revival, a sideman, or a solo artist, he has continually left audiences in awe of his virtuoso performances and compelling songs.
However, when I spoke with the legendary Sam Bush recently, we were immediately at odds: he's a Cardinals fan and I bleed Cubbie blue. Despite that, we quickly found common ground in Harry Caray (Bush grew up listening to Caray announce the Redbirds on the radio in Bowling Green, KY while I was a WGN acolyte) and a mutual admiration of the Hawk, Andre Dawson.
It occurred to me that this affable common ground is something Bush has been finding with audiences and, perhaps most importantly, fellow musicians throughout his career. From his days in the New Grass Revival to his winning solo work and onto his countless appearances alongside luminaries like Emmylou Harris, Leon Russell, and Doc Watson, Bush forges a captivating common bond with our ears.
Sam Bush began playing music at an early age.
“I grew up in a household that listened to the Grand Ole Opry.”
His father was a lover of fiddle and would frequently listen to Tommy Jackson records. The interplay between fiddle and mandolin on those early records caught his ear and a deep love of the mandolin developed, leading him towards bluegrass.
“Great mandolin players played bluegrass music. From there, I began to appreciate the rhythm and interplay of the instrument,” Bush explained.
Throughout his teenage years, Bush continued to play mandolin, winning competitions along the way. After moving to Louisville, Bush formed the New Grass Revival in 1971. Despite the revolutionary nature of the band, the members did not have a true conception of the importance.
“At the time we were just looking for a way to express ourselves.”
Fans of extended jams, they regularly listened to jazz albums by John Coltrane or Dave Brubeck and rock bands like the Dead, Allman Brothers, and Cream.
“We began incorporating those rock songs into our act, playing them in a bluegrass style and writing our own songs as well.”
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| Peter Lewis |
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